In Russia we have two big problems advertising alcohol. The first one is about law: no TV, no Press, no Radio. Only BTL and Internet (that was 2012; now it's even more strict). But the second is that in Russia we have two big social networks: VKontakte and Odnoklassniki with an audience of more than 100m users. But you can’t advertise alcohol on these networks, because of their internal politics. And the only way to promote your product through a social network is Facebook.

Without opportunity of direct advertising Havana Club released a film: «7 Days in Havana» is about Cuba, Cuban freedom, feelings, love and finding your own way.

Our aim was to announce the release of the film in social media and gain a following for the Havana Club Russia Facebook page.

Since the Soviet Union, Russians have loved the Cuban people. Russia loves Fidel. And Russians watch all the reality shows they can get their hands on. For example, we have two really popular reality shows: Dom-2 and Vacation in Mexico. But the most important thing is that in Russia, people like to interact with reality TV.

Havana Club is a rum from a country where people can be happy and free, without money and without shoes. This special view of the world, the spirit of freedom, of finding your own way. This spirit can best be expressed by: Hitchhikers!

As we said, we have a lot of problems with advertising alcohol in Russia. But in only 2 months, we gained huge awareness for the product: 4m from Facebook and 3m from TV interviews.

We received more than 100,000 likes on the competition's Facebook application and our Facebook page grew from 0 to more than 8000 people. People liked the show and the teams so much, they ask us about Hitchhiking to Havana 2.